The Lee Family. Once upon a time Noel and Rena got married and had 2 kids - Doris and Donald. Then one day, Doris got married to Jeremy and had her own 2 kids - Vince and Edda. We all live far apart, and keep moving around. It's hard to keep tabs on each other. Welcome to our blog.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Making a mess.

The week is over! I have to say, this was a really relaxing week.The kids were well, Edda had a short days at school and Vince had noschool, so there was almost no rushing in the mornings, we got totake our time and make it to school, no problem. Today was the lastday of Edda's 2-week intensive therapy at her school and on this lastday, Vince fully participated. We had slowly encroached on Edda'sschool activities until Vince finally realized that hanging out withEdda's class was more fun than anything I could offer.

Here's Edda with her teacher Ms. Eden before class started.

Then there was occupational therapy with Alan, balloon grabbingand kicking and tossing.

The best part of the class was the finger painting part. Oh whata mess. You see Vince making the mess too? Vince is great at Edda'sschool. Most of the kids in Edda's class are not verbal and some ofthe kids are a bit odd with their unusual behaviors, but Vince takeit all in stride. Today he sat next to J. (the blonde kid betweenEdda and Vince) and for most of the class and J. would be tapping orgrabbing Vince's shoulder or arm over and over again and Vince wouldcalmly take J's hand in his own hand and hold it for a while untilhis hand calmed down and then let it go gently – all withoutlooking away from the story that Ms. Eden was telling.

In the afternoon, we went to our therapy center for a session,Edda had a nice time and Vince joined in at the end. Sometimes whenI go to this therapy place and I wait in the waiting room, I listento the other moms talk about their kids and I can just hear the worryabout their kids and I usually want to tell them to put it all inperspective and that it isn't all bad. Many kids who go to thistherapy place seem to have no visible problems. They seem towalk/talk/play well while they wait in the waiting room. I knowthat some problems are invisible and a few minutes with a kid won'ttell you everything that it complicated with their lives. Todaythere was a mom there who was worried that her daughter liked playingby herself alone in her room and that, even though she's completelyaffectionate with her parents, it takes her 2 or 3 visits with aperson before she feels comfortable enough to open up to the newperson. Her daughter is very bright, just likes keeping to herself(an engineer perhaps?). The mother was actually so concerned aboutthis behavior that she could not consider having another childbecause she isn't courageous enough. The other mom was concernedbecause her son goes up to other kids on the playground and yellsobscene words at the other kids, but can't figure out why no one willbe his friend. I know that everyone's problems do fill up the spacein their heads so even if you have a small problem but it's your onlyone, you can brood about it forever. I'm still hoping that somedayEdda will be able to climb stairs and say a few words, or if shecan't say anything, I'm hoping that we'll be able to figure out a wayto understand each other. Maybe somehow indicating a yes or a no toa question. That would be great.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

YAY for Vince! He seems like a special, sensitive, and understanding child!

Those parents sound a bit like you USED to sound. How far you have come thius last year. Vincent is channeling his calm and patient behavior from parents that he learned his behavior from when he was little. I was always so amazed at your calmness with him when but I am not AT ALL surprised at his behavior with the little boy J. Guess it is time to admit it. You and Jeremy rock as parents! Happy Father's day to Jeremy!